At least 94 illegal migrants on their way to the US border had to force their way out of a stiflingly hot freight trailer in Mexico on Wednesday night.
The trailer which had been abandoned on a highway in the Mexican state of Veracruz was discovered by authorities on Wednesday night.
Some of the desperate people who were reportedly mainly from Guatemala had to break holes in the top of the truck and squeeze out onto the roof to escape the suffocating conditions inside.
Veracruz, which is around 250 miles from Mexico City, hit temperatures of up to nearly 88F on Wednesday. Inside the packed trailer was likely to have been significantly higher than the outside air temperature.
The migrants were found by Mexican authorities who attended the scene at around 10:30pm local time.
Some of them were treated for ankle or leg fractures after having attempted to jump from the roof of the truck to escape.
One man was found to be unconscious and was taken to a local hospital for treatment. There were no known fatalities.
Employees at a gas station near to where the truck had been abandoned helped the migrants pull themselves to safety.
“They broke through the roof of the trailer because they were suffocating and since there was a gas station nearby, the employees there helped them escape,” Jose Dominguez, director of civil protection in nearby Oluta told Reuters.
They then battered the roof of the trailer until they were able to break through to the roof.
According to Reuters, the truck was driven by a people smuggling gang network and had initially contained around 400 people, only 94 of whom were captured by authorities.
It comes after 53 migrants “roasted” to death inside a blisteringly hot truck as it crossed the border from Mexico to San Antonio, Texas, where their lifeless bodies were discovered inside.
The victims were thought to have died from heat exhaustion and dehydration.
The incident was the worst ever case of mass migrant fatalities in US-Mexico border history and prompted a huge amount of criticism levelled at President Biden for not taking border and immigration control more seriously.
Despite continually criticizing the Trump administration for its focus on hard immigration controls both on the border and domestically within places of work, the Biden administration has slowly and quietly implemented many of his predecessor’s policies.
In April, Biden announced the launch of ‘Operation Sentinel’ which vowed to clamp down on vile people smuggling gangs who often put migrant’s lives at risk to line their own pockets.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas said the policy aimed to disrupt the people smuggling network by revoking visas, travel documents, suspending trade entities and freezing bank accounts.
But how the removing travel documents of those who make a living by ferrying people over border illegally will deter them, who knows – and thus far it hasn’t.
Both of these incidents happened after the launch Operational Sentinel – proving the need for a hard border – not just to protect national security, but also to successfully deter people smuggling gangs and potentially save migrant’s lives.
This story syndicated with permission from Jo Marney, Author at Trending Politics
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